1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to templates useful for entry of data into a computer system and, in particular, to a series of templates useful with computerized assisted drafting.
2. Brief Statement of the Prior Art
Operations on mini- and micro-computers have progressively evolved to fairly complex functions providing the user with a wide selection of operating functions. As the operations have become increasingly complex, a problem which has faced equipment and software designers is the difficulty experienced by users in learning the operations sufficiently to become proficient in the tasks assigned to the computer system. User-friendly equipment and software have been developed with the major objective of providing a system which is easy to learn and use. Typical of the approaches which have been used are the menu driven or the icon driven operations. In these applications, the selection of a desired operation is achieved by following a path through a plurality of selectable levels of menus and sub-menus, also referred to as "pull-down" or hierarchial on-screen menus. Multiple levels of menus are required since the large number of ultimate working functions and the complexity of the system precludes a single visual display of all the working functions which are available. Examples of such systems include applications for desk-top publishing, word processing, and computerized assisted drafting and manufacturing (CAD-CAM).
A very popular form of menu-item display is icon presentation. In this presentation, graphic symbols which correspond to the items or functions which can be selected by the user are visually displayed on the monitor of the computer. The user selects the icon with a pointing device such as a mouse or light pen. While the icon or graphic symbol presentation is credited as very user friendly, it has the disadvantage of time delays which are encountered for refreshing the monitor display as the user progresses through the various levels of selectable functions (pull down menus) to the desired final working function.
In the applications which utilize a keyboard selection of the working function, some applications include a macro capability thereby permitting the user to define a key or combination of keys which will automatically provide to the computer a signal corresponding to a key sequence, thereby providing, in a single keystroke, the path through the levels of main and sub-menus to the desired function. This application is limited however, as there is a practical limit to the number of macro definitions which can be quickly learned and retained by the user. If the user does not recall the particular key or keys which will call up the macro, it is necessary to display the macro file directory or library, thus requiring an additional step and delaying the operation. As the macros are commonly written with keyboard entries, their application is also so limited and users who are more comfortable using a pointing device must forego the accelerated speed of selection obtained by use of macros.